My story started when my will
decided it would have its way.
A pleasure boat I bought that day.
I fixed it up with dreams until
I felt my future fatten, fill.
Then came more sin. Then came more fear.
The promised shores did not appear.
I struggled, fought against the knot
that held me sinking with my yacht.
It’s only by God’s grace I’m here.
Ronovan Hester offers the rhyme word “knot” to be used in the D line of a décima for this week’s Décima Poetry Challenge with rhyme pattern ABBAACCDDC.
The water in the coffee’s hot.
The sand upon the beach is too.
When simple duty will not do
temptations offer what they’ve got.
So, should I stray or should I not?
A vortex has much snow to hurl.
With stormy wrath the wind will whirl
me where I do not want to go.
I see the signs. They tell me: “No.
Rejoice and stay. Let faith unfurl.”
Ronovan Hester offers the rhyme word “whirl” to be used a C line of a décima having rhyme pattern ABBAACCDDC for this week’s Décima Poetry Challenge.
Around deception there is stealth.
It covers up the root word steal.
Deceivers hope we won’t reveal
that there is more than earthly health.
Behold the idol. See its wealth?
It rots. It burns. It turns to dust.
Without true change those dying must
resettle with the trash of hell.
Look down with dread. That dropping well
grows deep with lies betraying trust.
Ronovan Hester offers the rhyme word “steal” to be used in a B line of a décima for this week’s Décima Poetry Challenge.
I was thinking of Revelation 21:8. The photos are an attempt to hint at what’s still available should one change one’s mind if one hasn’t already.
The devil gets no peace. To sing
for him is more a punishment.
His time is short. It goes. It went,
but wrath remains a fearful thing.
We’re confident. Each coming spring
is but rehearsal for the end
when death is done and life can mend.
We can’t cling to an evil heart.
Please, make it new. Now let us start.
Tomorrow we’ll be home, my friend.
Ronovan Hester offers the rhyme word “spring” to be used in an A line of a décima having rhyme pattern ABBAACCDDC for this week’s challenge.
“It will be Biblical,” I’ve read.
My hope embraces all the change
and challenges. I’ll rearrange
ignoring fear, rejecting dread.
In truth good news has long been spread.
I sacrifice my sinful heart.
Create it pure. Renew each part.
I’ll trust the warmth and saving care.
I’ll wait in silence anywhere
then praise whatever You might start.
Ronovan Hester challenges us to use the rhyme word “care” in a D line of a décima having the rhyme pattern ABBAACCDDC. I was mostly thinking of Psalm 51.
We ask and yet we don’t receive.
Let’s drop some plans. Let others wait.
I wonder: Were the corners straight?
What wayward missteps did we weave?
I won’t let fear take root to grieve.
Dreams are cooking? Let them simmer.
Dusk is growing. Light gets dimmer.
Take time to find the righteous way
avoiding what led us astray.
Morning sunlight soon will shimmer.
Ronovan Hester challenges us to write a décima with the rhyme word “shimmer” in a C line with a rhyme pattern ABBAACCDDC.
So whom do you rely upon?
You’re at the Red Sea. Where’s the boat?
How long in water can you float?
That’s when a way was made. At dawn
the charging enemy was gone
except for corpses flushed to shore.
You still have doubts? You’d like one more
experiment to test what’s true?
You see the dead? They’d like that, too,
but they have lost their strength for war.
Ronovan Hester offers the rhyme word “float” to be used in a B line of a décima having rhyme pattern ABBAACCDDC for this week’s Décima Poetry Challenge.
See Exodus 14 for an account of the crossing of the Red Sea.
Its spines stood out in shiny red
with body black against white wall.
Its web seemed barely there at all
but formed a sticky prison bed.
The traps effectively were spread
to catch deception in midair.
The truth exposed each lie out there
and everywhere we heard the crash.
The busted celebration bash
had cursed repentance, scorned good prayer.
Ronovan Hester challenges us to write a décima with the rhyme word “bash” in the D position of a rhyme pattern ABBAACCDDC.
Perhaps not everyone could see.
Some who saw refused to follow.
Those who did their lives, once hollow,
were all transformed majestically.
A tiny light far off may be
a beam from an enormous star.
The blood once flowing left a scar.
Did all that happen long ago?
We see the scar and starlit show.
One word confirms just who we are.
Ronovan Hester offers the challenge to use the rhyme word “star” in the C line of a décima having rhyme pattern ABBAACCDDC.
Take care that you are not deceived.
To gutters petty pleasures drift.
Think not on rights. It’s all a gift.
Forget what you thought you achieved.
Fake gold can only leave you grieved
since none has value in the end.
Note: Falsehood never had a friend.
Beware His wrath. Avoid the curse.
Avoid the path from bad to worse
where spirals flush the flesh they rend.
In Ronovan Hester’s Décima Poetry Challenge we are asked to use the rhyme word “gift” in the B line of a décima having rhyme pattern ABBAACCDDC.
This poem is a meditation on 2 Timothy 3. Although somber, rejoice. If you can see the Gift, stay the course and have a Merry Christmas! And if you don’t, there’s still time.
But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.
2 Timothy 3:13 King James Version
Poetry, Short Prose and Walking 